Golf course grant will focus on RV park

Port district commissioners and grant writer, Frank Andrews Jr., second from left, pour over a map of Banks Lake Golf Course as they discuss improvements they hope to make at the 18-hole course. Commissioners are: far left, Dennis Lohrman, center, Orville Sharbach, and far right, James Keene. Commissioners have asked the public to help in shaping a grant request for funds for the improvements. - Roger S. Lucas photo

The priorities in a push for a golf course enhancement grant took a shift last Thursday night as a dozen people gathered to discuss the six parts of the preferred list of ideas.

Number six on the list, the RV park project, took front and center as stakeholders took a serious look at how the grant application to the state's Recreation and Conservation Office might be structured.

The RV park would provide a revenue source for the money-starved, 18-hole Banks Lake Golf Course, while the other five priorities would not.

Frank Andrews Jr ., led the discussion and will write the grant, seeking some $500,000 from the state's Land and Water Conservation Fund. The grant requires a full match, and that's where it will take some creative work to satisfy this requirement.

Andrews, who writes grants for the Colville Tribes, said labor, equipment use, and a number of other things qualify for in-kind matching money.

The other five priorities were:

1) repair and fix the irrigation system;

2) equipment needed at the course;

3) clubhouse improvements;

4) fairway improvement; and

5) greens repairs.

Andrews was first to say it, when he stated, "the RV park should be number one."

Most agreed, and discussion centered on the RV park and how volunteers could work and gain matching money on the other five.

The grant application is due May 2. Grants awarded by the LWCF will be for 2016.

Port District 7, which operates the golf course, had a study done by its engineering firm on what it would cost to put in an RV park with some 44 hookups and a few tent sites. The price tag provided sticker shock when the estimated cost came in at $1.45 million. The port district was considering ways to reduce this cost.

Serving on the port commission are President Orville Scharbach and commissioners James Keene and Dennis Lohrman.

A member of the LWCF team, Kyle Guglas, will be in the area Jan. 27-29, to work with the Tribes on another project, and also meet with officials from the town of Coulee Dam. Andrews said that will be an opportunity to discuss the grant application from the golf course with him.

Andrews is gathering information about the course that can be used in the application.